John Boehner

John Boehner (17 November 1949-) was Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 5 January 2011 to 29 October 2015, succeeding Nancy Pelosi and preceding Paul Ryan.

Biography
John Boehner was born on 17 November 1949 in Reading, Ohio to a Catholic family of German and Irish ancestry; he was the second of twelve children. Boehner was discharged from the US Navy in 1968 for having a bad back, and he instead gained a business administration degree from Xavier University in 1977. He became involved in local politics in the 1980s, serving as an Ohio state representative from 1985 to 1990 as a member of the US Republican Party. In 1990, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, and he served on several committees, as well as serving as House Republican Leader and House Minority Leader during the 2000s. In 2011, he became Speaker of the House after the Republicans formed a majority in Congress, and he almost never voted or debated on any issues. By 2015, however, there were strong threats to his leadership, forcing him to step down as Speaker. Boehner returned to his home in Ohio, where he played golf, mowed his own lawn, drank red wine, and smoked cigarettes, living a happy life in retirement.